Brooke Weston

News Item

Year 10s mean business

Competition winner Chrissy Mayiati with some of her classmates.

Wednesday 14th April 2010 by C. Freeman

Year 10 students had to come up with a unique idea and formulate a business plan for it as part of their Business Studies coursework. In addition to working out their cash-flow and financing, students also had to choose the location of their business, weighing up the pros and cons of different commercial areas.

Business Studies teacher Miss Ryan said: 'The project was about business planning and enterprise. They had to come up with their company names, their unique selling point and the location they would work from, then they did a basic finance costing. The whole year group took part in the competition which Christina Mayiati won. She developed an educational project based in Corby called 'Up', providing after-school tuition for children studying for GCSEs or SATS, topping up the £10,000 theoretical budget with Government grants.'

Chrissy said: 'I thought I would be a bit different, if you needed a boost in your GCSEs or SATS you could go along there for extra classes or individual sessions after school and at weekends. It would be a subsidised service. I got a lot out of it business-wise, writing my own business plan and making it look professional.'

The students spent three sessions on the project, typing it up as a homework assignment.

Miss Ryan said: 'Their key learning points were to obtain a realistic idea of the work involved in setting up their own business. This involved linking to relevant banking and finance websites, allocating their budget and realising the impact that different locations have on their business model.'